Wednesday, September 17, 2014

NO.1 S7 Pro Review – MT6582 720p 1GB/16GB

NO.1 S7 Pro review specifications
The NO.1 S7 Pro is an MT6582 SoC mobile with 1GB of RAM and 16GB storage. The display is 5.0″@720p giving it a ppi of 293. The phone is single-SIM, has quad-band GSM and 850/2100 WCDMA 3G.

NO.1 S7 Pro review display LCD
The screen on the NO.1 S7 Pro can be classified as very good. There is no light bleed around the edges or in the corners as is the case with some mobiles. From extreme angles looking at the bottom of the display will show a line of light where the backlight resides, but it’s not visible when looking at the phone from normal angles.

It’s an IPS display and the color and contrast remain true from all angles. The phone’s auto-brightness worked fine and in sunlight the display can still easily be seen.

NO.1 S7 Pro review physical build quality
The build quality of the NO.1 S7 Pro can be classified as good. It’s physically a solid phone and doesn’t at all feel like something that will fall apart with a few months use.
This phone came from http://www.001mobilephone.com/. They have a good selection of budget / mid-range and top-range mobiles such as the One-Plus-One, TCL Idol-X, Lenovo S960, Huawei Honor 3X and Xiaomi Mi4.

NO.1 S7 Pro review OS and touchscreen
I found the NO.1 S7 Pro is very responsive, with no issues regarding ghost touches or lack of sensitivity. The MT6582 SoC offers plenty of juice to move 720p. Speed tap typing went off without a hitch.
There is a glaring negative regarding the touchscreen though. As it is out of the box, it’s only 1-point touch. On very rare occasions I could get it to sense 2, but not nearly reliable enough for real world use. What this means is that rotating maps won’t be possible, and expanding and zooming images can be a chore. Some apps allow you to tap twice and drag with one finger to expand and contract images, but not all.
It’s worth mentioning here however that I have not updated to the latest firmware available for the NO.1 S7 Pro. Doing so may fix this problem, but as it is out of the box, it’s functionally 1-point touch.

NO.1 S7 Pro review MIC, earpiece and external speaker
Phone conversations were no problem with the NO.1 S7 Pro. I could be heard without issue and the person on the other end said I sounded clear.
The external speaker is beyond adequate for hands-free calling as well as listening to video and music.

NO.1 S7 Pro review GPS
The GPS on the NO.1 S7 Pro can be classified as mediocre. Warm locks took less than 10 seconds and the first cold lock took less than a minute. The overall signal strength once locked was about average for MTK SoC. No glaring issues here, but the NO.1 S7 Pro isn’t going to impress with GPS signal strength either.
The image here is of the GPS after about 10 seconds under thick clouds. After about a minute, accuracy improved to 13ft.

NO.1 S7 Pro review WiFi
The NO.1 S7 WiFi can be classified as mediocre. From 200ft away from the router the phone could not stay connected, and I had to step within 150ft to get a stable internet connection. Phones such as the iNew V8, Doogee DG550, Doogee DG310 and THL 5000 all stayed stable at 200ft and some of these phones would likely be fine at 225ft+.

NO.1 S7 Pro review camera








The camera in the NO. S7 pro is average considering all modern mobiles. It can focus with tap, and focus both indoors and outdoors functioned fine. See the gallery below for NO.1 S7 Pro pictures. In daylight it took passable pictures which would be fine for digital / social sharing.

NO.1 S7 Pro review app compatibility
Most apps seem to run fine with the NO.1 S7 Pro. Facebook, Skype and Play all ready to rock, though at one point I had a problem with YouTube and Maps force closing upon opening. A reboot of the phone fixed the issue.
NO.1 S7 Pro review battery
Now we get into the most glaring issue with the NO.1 S7 Pro — It’s battery. The phone is deep sleeping fine, but regardless of that, the battery life with the S7 leaves a lot to be desired and does worse than even the battery challenged iNew V3.At least the V3 had an excuse as it was an issue with the hardware not being able to fully charge the battery.
In the image above, you see about 3.2 hours onscreen over 13 hours. It’s enough most people through the day, but it’s quite low when comparing it to other current phones on the market in similar price range.
This phone came from http://www.001mobilephone.com/. They have a good selection of budget mid-range and top-range mobiles such as the One-Plus-One, TCL Idol-X, Lenovo S960, Huawei Honor 3X and Xiaomi Mi4. Note this test was done without a SIM in, WiFi internet and generally low brightness. The phone is listed by NO.1 as being 2800mA, however it’s real capacity seems to be about half that.

NO.1 S7 Pro review conclusion
Most of the phones I review can be recommended, as I normally am quite selective about which phones I spend my time testing. Every once in a while though, there’s a doozy and the NO.1 S7 Pro can be placed in that category.
Single-SIM, 1-point touch, weakish WiFi and the sad battery life make this phone a loser. While the S7 generally was a fine phone to use, the battery life should take this phone off the short list for anyone who’s looking in the $150 range and needs more than a couple hours onscreen between charges. It’s a shame, as the LCD is very nice and general functionality of the phone is fine.In the price range of the NO.1 S7 Pro, there are far more solid phones such as the Doogee DG550.
If you absolutely must have a phone in the Samsung style, and if short battery life isn’t a factor for you, the phone could still be considered, as the world of Samsung copycats holds far worse phones than the NO.1 S7 Pro.
Keep in mind that as of the time of this review I have not yet upgraded the phone to the latest version firmware. NO.1 has released several updates for this phone. However, I normally first review phones as they are out of the box.
NO.1 can be commended for at least releasing regular firmware updates, and the guys at www.001mobilephone.com have been very pleasant and easy to deal with. Communication was excellent. I will have a followup to this review within the next several days after updating to the latest firmware.

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